Finding planet-killing asteroids isn't scary, even though an impact could destroy civilization. Not finding them would be scary.
,” and the lead author is Scott Sheppard, an astronomer at the Earth and Planets Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution for Science.
This figure from the study shows the population of NEOs. The asteroid marked with the blue dot could potentially intersect Earth’s orbit someday. The blue dot furthest left is the closest asteroid to the Sun ever found. Image Credit: Sheppard et al., 2022. Spotting tiny objects like these asteroids in the Sun’s glare, when there are only two 10-minute observation periods each evening, is beyond the capabilities of most telescopes. It takes a unique instrument to operate effectively in these conditions. The tool of choice was the Dark Energy Camera at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.
That ability to observe deep and wide simultaneously means the DEC is suited to finding asteroids near the Sun. This research is about more than just finding dangerous asteroids so that we can prepare to defend Earth from future impacts. It goes to the heart of understanding our Solar System. Since asteroids in the inner Solar System are so challenging to spot, our theoretical models of object populations are based on what’s easiest to see. This creates a bias in our models, and the DEC is helping to mitigate that bias.
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